[K-SCIENCE] Korea's 1st Self-driving City

South Korea has taken the first step towards operating remote-controlled autonomous vehicles on real roads.

The country has completed work on a "K-City", an unpopulated town in the central western city of Hwaseong, where self-driving vehicles can be fully tested.

The city completed after 18 months of construction covers an area of about 320,000 square meters.

The K-city is known to be the world's first autonomous vehicle testing arena based on next-generation 5G mobile networks.


[Kwon Byung-Yoon, director, Korea Transportation Safety Authority]
"We plan to upgrade the K-city by investing an additional 31 billion won in communications facilities to secure safety in blind spots."


The 5G networks enable companies, universities and research institutes to test a wide variety of autonomous connected cars in different environments.

The government plans to establish an industrial complex on a 230,000-square-meter site near the K-city by 2021, which will contribute to further boosting the autonomous vehicle sector and preparing for the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution.